mmmmlviii

Thirsty

I shall have
water and
seaweed,
hunger
says to
thirst.
When
I was
born I
was very
thirsty. This
I’ve been told.
Oh, when I
was three
I was given
a treasure
and told to
build bold
buildings
out of it,
these blocks,
these alphabet
blocks. I had a
dad was an over
achiever, or so he
projected so focused
on me. And so every
day I would play with
these letters made
words, made
wallops of
blocks until
architecturally
gargantuan,
whopping
mounds
with infinite
mouthed
alphabetical
sounds. I
know that
all this was
not playing
for dad, a
father who’d
just barely
earned his
own high
school
diploma
had me
(and at
three)
most
every
morning
snagging
the Southwest
Time Record
just for the
crossword
(and often
I’d rip out
the funnies
as well).
Years later
he’d tell me
he had not
one earthly
idea what to
do with a son
who would
take to his
bed all day
long of a
weekend,
my nose
nearly
closed
inside of
a book
for hour
upon
hour
as if
nearly
half
blind.
But what
was I saying
to start with
of thirst? It’s
not that I forgot,
I assure you,
it’s just, well,
I was thinking
how that single
word had become
so lascivious, so
trendy, so off-
kilter from
how I had
use it,
and in
this way
can often
be found
these
days
tucked
into smarty-
pants sentences
all cute-like
by folks
whose
ages
times
three
would
perhaps
approach
mine. “I
guess she
was thirsty,”
they’d say
and at first
I’d get all
crinkled and
flummoxed.
“Oh, Grandpa!
It just means
she wanted
some action.”
Now action’s
a word that,
too, has a
few different
meanings, but
the action the
youngsters were
speaking of was
something that
was quite familiar
to me, and a word
I had used in that
context on many
an occasion. But
thirst? Well,
quite never,
not once until
right about
today or
so thanks
to giddily
listening
to these
young folks
chitter and
chatter. That’s
all I was thinking
up at the beginning
of this skinny bit of
silliness. So of course
my mind wandered a
bit but just barely off
track lost for a while
as I often am within
and around the
great wonder of
of words and how
they’ve been such
sheer joy for me
much more often
than not ever
since I
was a wee
kid of three.
They say that
our languages
are now evolving
but faster and faster,
perhaps in an effort to
keep up with the times.
With this I am fine. And
while I might be out of the
loops with most of the lot
of this exponential evolution,
I don’t mind catching as much
as I can, before it’s too late
and I’ve lasted until I’ve no
longer a mind, or else I’m
quite simply flat out of
time. Read to me
some new words
but forget not
the old ones.
Youth is
lovely
company
to put it
quite simply,
and makes living
seem longer and
ageless for those
you might deem
out of touch,
sometimes.